Sushu's Sketchblog

Here are some signs that I found online:

With gems like "Welcome the World Expo: Be a 7-Treasure Person"

I love the invocation to "Deal in Civility, Cultivate New Airs" without any specificity. But in case you want some specifics:


1. Don't swear or say rude words
2. Don't litter
3. Don't smoke or drink
4. Don't destroy public property
5. Don't spit as it suits you
6. Don't cross the street chaotically
7. Don't carve or write on walls
8. Don't destroy greenery
9. Don't be wasteful
10. Don't participate in unhealthy social activities

Here is a picture of the side of a building with lots of signs. I think it was a school, but more importantly, it was a GARDEN UNIT.


As usual, post comments here: http://sushux.net/chinacomic/?p=224

As the asterisk says on the comic, the first example story is a composite. There *is* a guy who has emailed and called me to ask about colleges and stuff, who I don't remember at all. I think he was one of 7 or 8 people that I had dinner with, once. I don't know how he got my email. He spelled my name wrong and also called me "sis". Um, yeah. The last panel, however, comes from a few years ago, when there was a guy who asked my mom if she could talk to someone to get his cousin into a U.S. school. It's one of those things like, "Well, if America worked that way, I'd be happy to help, but it doesn't, so no." I kind of feel bad in these circumstances, because if the roles were reversed, the other side would definitely help. It's just that connections occupy about 20% of "getting things done" here, whereas it's about 80% there.

The second story, however, is 100% true. The girl eventually stopped watching her Chinese soap to quote me a price and take a picture for me. Then she printed it at the wrong size. When I told her I needed it passport sized, she didn't believe me, and so she went on chat and asked a friend, who told her the size. She had to confirm 3 times with her friend before she adjusted the size for me. Then she only printed half of what I ordered because it would have cost her too much to print the right amount. I used to be frustrated by the callousness of cashiers, waitresses, etc. Then I realized that it was because I didn't have any connection to them, so really, why should they be nice?

On the other hand, I've experienced great service when going somewhere local with my uncle -- people know him, and so give him good deals and give us good service. I always feel like not enough of China is professional, which is perhaps because friendships, family, and connections matter so much more. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing -- am I willing to give up the close camaraderie and sketchiness in exchange for measurable and monetized professional standards? Perhaps it's not an either-or. Taxi drivers are very professional, especially in Beijing, but at the same time they keep the feeling of camaraderie through banter.

As usual, comments turned off here. Go to http://sushux.net/chinacomic/?p=216 to comment.

So I wasn't as impressed by Guolichen as my friends and colleagues at the Fengtai Softball Field, but I was quite impressed by the many uses and meanings of this bottled orange soda that extended beyond simply "a drink". It helped me better understand the guanxi system (connections culture).

I drew this on the flight back from Illinois, and it came rather easily, because I'd drawn a proto version of this comic on a dining table paper back in October, 2008. You can see that it still has many similar elements:

The power band is in reference to the 5 Olympics-colored power bands that we had to wear on each wrist that were specific to Olympics volunteers. People soon started trading them for other items. This comic is, I think, the first with the Olympics. My 2008 volunteer experience was very educational for me, and so there may be a few more coming down the line.

You may have noticed that these last few comics have small narrative bits. I feel like I've gotten to a degree of comfort in portraying my China experiences that I can start doing that. I hope you don't find it too disconcerting as I move away from "telling" and towards "showing".

By the way, Minute Maid is 美汁源 in Chinese ("Beautiful Juice Source"). Here's a picture of Guolichen:


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So I wrote this about a month ago, and had all but 1 row of panels finished, but then didn't work on it for about a month, during which school ended and I went to Illinois for a summer institute.

This is one of those cases where there is some exaggeration -- for one, I always sit shotgun when going somewhere in the family van. Also, my parents know of other types of non-Chinese food, such as KFC hotwings and Vietnamese spring rolls.

Finally, I actually had to do a little research for this one, since I'd never eaten at a Pizza Hut in China because it's too pricey for me. But apparently it's the go-to place for western food (including pasta and a one-stop salad bar) at western prices.



The result of only letting people go to the salad bar once:


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I've since learned not to pack tank tops, regardless of how hot and muggy it is in Shanghai in the summer. :) The other incidents referenced in this comic: being told to bring formal wear "that you would wear to a formal dinner". I went out a bought a proper dress and fancy sandals, only to go there and find out that we were supposed to wear "business" casual. There were looks of shock at my asking if we needed socks. Then I had to give a speech in my dress. We were a group of 20 Chinese-Americans and 20 Chinese, and it was quite striking that all of the American ladies wore formal dresses. The other incident was during the Beijing Olympics. Those were some of the other overseas Chinese girls and guys that I was hanging with. It's kind of funny that a half-naked old guy can admonish you for wearing too little because you're in flip-flops and a tank top.

To be fair, the socks thing made sense -- Chinese streets are sort of grimy, with various air-conditioner drippings and other stuff, so you don't want to expose your toes to that stuff.

My major challenge to fitting in with the Chinese youth fashion is that everyone is supposed to be tiny and skinny. This is why I end up wearing 40-year-old "mom" styles. That and I don't like 15,000 sparkles and misspelled English words.

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This one is kind of meh, because the topic sort of meanders. I wanted to talk about how “fancy food” in China is really about “fancy decor/service”, and the food might not actually taste that much better. Especially when they bring on the “quality ingredients” like sea cucumber and shark fin and snake. But something must be said for the comfortable private rooms, the air conditioning, and the quality serving staff. Even though you can get something at about 1/10 of the price on the streets. These restaurants are everywhere, though — many floors, mostly all private rooms, wait staff with fancy custom-designed clothes, and pitchers of juice cost 40 rmb (in comparison, a meat bun on the street is 2rmb and a bowl of wontons in a small restaurant is 8rmb).

But in the making of this comic, I started thinking about *why* these fancy banquet restaurants exist, and I guess part of it is the fact that the bill is often footed by the company, but really, it’s about the desire to treat the guests to a good time. Whether you’re wooing them for business or sharing your new-found wealth or just thanking/celebrating with your family. Which made me think about the function of food, and how 请客 (“invite guests”) is Serious Business. Since I’m mostly back in China as a visitor, I get a lot of the quality hosting …

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Some reasons:
- All my aging relatives are in China, so I just don’t know many old people in the US
- China has more people and a more public way of life, so I just see more on the streets of China
- I live in a part of the US with younger demographics

Hi guys, I promised a proper place for the China comics after 10 of them. After some thought, I've decided to go with a comicspress thing on my website, so even through it's more of a hassle, please post comments to http://sushux.net/chinacomic/?p=88 . I know LJ is more convenient for everyone, but the pop-up ads for non-users is too much. Wordpress doesn't require logging in or setting up an ID, so hopefully it shouldn't hinder commenting...

Again, comments are disabled. Comment at: http://sushux.net/chinacomic/?p=88 , and we'll see how it works out. Many thanks!

This one was a long time in coming. One of the first things that I wanted to talk about was navigating the streets of China, but it took me a while to get the "right angle" on it in my head. There's 74 people and many vehicles. But I'm not that great at drawing the vehicles. Please pretend that everyone is in the right perspective and scale.

When I showed this to my friend in China, she thought that I was saying that Chinese people aren't civilized law-abiding citizens. It was only when I showed her the scarcity of people and activities on the US streets via Google Street view that she had a better appreciation of the more general differences.

See if you can spot --
- Me
- Jono
- Umbrella
- Two girls holding hands (because that's what girls do in China)
- A whole family (Mom, dad, baby) on a moped
- People with their shirt tucked under their armpits

Woot, thanks to a surprise extra day off from school due to some Christian holiday about rabbits and rebirth, and me getting over writer's block, a new China comic!

Jono had some difficulty with this comic, so I changed a few words. Hopefully it's not too confusing? I think movies are expensive b/c it's a western import luxury, like cell phones, tvs, and cars.

Pictured in here: An-an, a friend in Shanghai, and Yucheng, a friend in Beijing. And by later I actually mean a year later, on a separate trip, but whatevs. I'm so used to movies being the cheap alternative to going out for plays and stuff. The next few comics will talk more about these price differences.

A few of my markers went dry, so the shading is a bit off.

Finally, 生煎包 are like the soupy dumpling (小笼包)'s awesome cousin -- it has the same juiciness, but also a chewy, fried exterior. Mmmm!

We went to 小杨生煎 which can be seen in action here:

This one took a long time because I forgot that Chinese parks having a ton of people in it would mean that I'd have to draw said ton of people. Jono counted for me, and it's apparently 78 people. o.O;; But! At least I figured out the paper issue, so this one only took a 10 minute brush-up on Photoshop, instead of 2 hours.

But Chinese parks are interesting. There wasn't really a notion of a "public park" until the Westerners showed up. Nowadays the parks are either co-opted from private Chinese gardens or private western parks (from foreign concessions). No matter how Western, they'd always figure out a way to have water and meandering paths somewhere. And no matter how Chinese, they'd always add some open space. And of course, during communist times, it was also the locus of mass entertainment and amusement, so it also has remnants of amusement park "rides" (Merry-go-rounds, a horse pen, maybe a small pond with toy boats that you can race, a mirror maze, odd playground creatures...). Nowadays parks are also the place for morning exercise. There would be two taichi groups and 3 social dance groups occupying the same place. Crazy.

For example, the following photos were from the SAME PARK. Namely, the park about 10 min walk from my uncle's place in Shanghai.



The guy in here: he's singing. Because he feels like it.

( a bunch more for further contrast )

And then, there's the size issue. Chinese parks are very densely packed. For example, here is Luxun park:


But compared to, say, Golden Gate park, it's positively tiny:

( Read more... )